The 2025 Preakness: Post Positions, Odds, And Journalism's Re-Boot

Forbes

13-05-2025

Here's Mud In Your Eye: Sovereignty, left, caked with mud, wins decisively over Journalism, far right, as Baeza, center, flies in on Journalism yards from the finish of the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 03, 2025 in Louisville. (Photo by)
At a glance, the Preakness seems to be that somewhat less daunting contest relative to the Kentucky Derby's larger-than-life rugby scrum and to the Belmont Stakes' flat racing approximation of marathon. According to this scale, and despite the 150th running bearing a $2-million purse, the Preakness exercises less impact on its athletes.
But historically, exactly that distant, cliched view of the race is the point on which many hundreds of horsemen and their athletes have made a mistake. It's the Preakness' sharp two-week post-Derby timing that delivers such a knockout blow to the athletes. Put differently, there are short run-backs throughout Thoroughbred racing. Then, for the horses that have run in the Kentucky Derby, there is the Preakness.
But before we dive headlong into whether Journalism actually has the moxie to win this, or either, of the remaining Triple Crown races, here, a hard look at the field, the post positions and Pimlico's morning line odds.
Post Position, Horse, Trainer, Jockey, Morning Line
(Source: Pimlico, 5/12/2025)
That top favorite Journalism drew the two-hole does not seem to be hurting his favorite status at 8-5 in the nine-horse field, while Sandman, Mark Casse trained and breaking from post position seven, is the field's second-favorite. Young gunslinger River Thames, whose owners elected to give him time after running third in the Blue Grass and did not enter him in the Derby, trained by none other than Todd Pletcher, seems to be getting a bit of his own back in the eyes of the Pimlico oddsmakers as the third-favorite in the race at a viable 9-2.